An initiative was launched on Tuesday to examine the work of the George Soros funded Foundation Open SOciety in Macedonia. According to Nikola Srbov, who is one of the initiators, the Soros funded organization has monopolized the civil society sector in Macedonia, and has acted to stop expressions of diverse opinions among the so-called NGO groups.

“We’ve witnessed the take over of the entire civil sector and its abuse and instrumentalization to meet the goals of one political party. That is unacceptable and goes beyond the principles of civic organizing. The Foundation Open Society, operating under the Soros umbrella, used its funding and personnel to support violent processes in Macedonia. It has monopolized the civil society sector, pushing outside any organization which disagrees with the Soros ideology. Any pretense of pluralism in the civil society sector was bulldozed over and total single-mindedness has been imposed”, Srbov said at the press conference. The historian and commentator added that this Foundation has imposed the George Soros brand of radical left wing ideology on Macedonia, which includes a push to erase identities of nations and states, as well as to open the borders of Europe toward the Middle East, which raises serious security issues.

According to journalist Cvetin Chilimanov, the Foundation Open Society in Macedonia has coordinated its activities with the social-democratic SDSM party, but also with many of the diplomatic missions in Macedonia, which has caused worsening of Macedonia’s relations with these countries.

“Here, we are primarily talking about the American USAID program, the European Union program to develop the civil society, and some of the European embassies in Skopje. This has, unfortunately, led to impression in the public that foreign countries, whose diplomatic representatives in Macedonia should be even-handed observers of political processes, but not active participants in them, are taking sides, picking their favorites in the political arena and supporting one side against the other. This is unacceptable and has largely contributed to a feeling in the public that the traditional relations of partnership Macedonia enjoyed with some countries, are being undermined. Therefore, one of the goals of our initiative will be to ask the diplomatic corps what has led to this situation, and to look for ways to overcome it in the shortest possible amount of time”, Chilimanov added.

Nenad Mirchevski said that the main goal of the initiative presented on Tuesday will be “desorosoization” of Macedonia. Mirchevski added that he is fully aware of the power which this structure has concentrated over the years in Macedonia, but said that he is confident that enough citizens will stand up and join the initiative.